1. Field
A scroll compressor and an air conditioner including a scroll compressor are disclosed herein.
2. Background
An air conditioner is a home appliance that maintains indoor air in an optimal state according to uses and purposes thereof. For example, an indoor space may be controlled to a cooling state in summer, and controlled to a warming state in winter. Indoor humidity may also be controlled, and the indoor air may be maintained in a fresh and clean state.
The air conditioner may be driven in a refrigeration cycle in which compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation processes of a refrigerant may be performed, and thus, a cooling or warming operation of the indoor space may be performed. According to whether an indoor unit or device and an outdoor unit or device are separated or integrated, the air conditioner may be classified into a separated type air conditioner, in which the indoor device and the outdoor device are separated from each other, or an integrated type air conditioner, in which the indoor device and the outdoor device may be integrated in one device.
The outdoor device may include an outdoor heat exchanger which may perform heat-exchange with external air, and the indoor device may include an indoor heat exchanger which may perform heat-exchange with indoor air. The air conditioner may be switched into a cooling mode and a warming mode, and may be operated in a switched mode. When the air conditioner is operated in the cooling mode, the outdoor heat exchanger may serve as a condenser, and the indoor heat exchanger may serve as an evaporator. When the air conditioner is operated in the warming mode, the outdoor heat exchanger may serve as the evaporator, and the indoor heat exchanger may serve as the condenser.
In general, when ambient air conditions are not good, a cooling or warming performance of the air conditioner may be restricted. For example, when a temperature of the ambient air is very high or low at an installation area of the air conditioner, a sufficient flow rate of a refrigerant is required to obtain a desired cooling or warming performance. A compressor having a large capacity may be provided to increase a performance of the compressor. In this case, a manufacturing or installation cost of the air conditioner may be increased.
To solve the above problem, Applicants filed an application for a patent on a heat pump system in which a refrigerant is injected into a scroll compressor using a refrigerant injection path, which was issued as Korea Patent No. 10-1280381, entitled “Heat Pump”, hereinafter, referred to as a “related art patent”, and hereby incorporated by reference.
However, in the case of the above-described related art patent, only first and second refrigerant injection ports are provided and that refrigerant injection may be performed is disclosed, and a relative position between an injection hole formed at a compressor and an inlet port (a refrigerant suction port) of the compressor is not specified. A relative position of the injection hole with respect to the inlet port may have a large influence on whether a flow rate of a suctioned or injected refrigerant is able to be increased.
For example, when the injection hole is located at a predetermined position, an injection of the refrigerant may be performed before suction of the refrigerant into the scroll compressor is completed, and there may be a problem that a pressure in a suction chamber may be increased, and thus, the flow rate of the suctioned refrigerant in the compressor may be reduced. As another example, when the injection hole is located at another predetermined position, injection of the refrigerant may be performed after the suction of the refrigerant into the scroll compressor is completed, the injection may be performed after an internal pressure of a compression chamber is already increased, and thus, an injection flow rate may be reduced. Therefore, the position of the injection hole formed at the scroll compressor may have a large influence on improvement of performance of the compressor or the air conditioner.